III. LETTER been combined together by the subordinate operation of those means or laws to which we give the names of cohesion, attraction, gravitation, crystallization, and such like; but all these made only lifeless substances and compelled movement, without any spontaneous power or self-acting principle within them. Every thing was inert, until impelled; and all motion was the effect of external force, ceasing when that ceased, and never proceeding beyond its compulsory impulse, either in direction or degree. The Deity now proceeded to a new order and principle of Creation--that which is associated more immediately to Himself. This was, to arrange some of the material elements of nature into definite and interesting forms, with a curious internal mechanism, within which a living principle was to abide, spontaneously acting and producing those peculiar and impressive phenomena, which only life can perform. It is this living principle which brings all that possess it, into a far nearer relation to their Maker, than inert and inorganic matter-for in its lowest form and activity, it is still totally unlike all that is without it; and has a certain degree of assimilation to its Creator, whose essential quality is eternal, unoriginating, and ever-during life. All vitality appears to be some communication of this grand characteristic in Himself to those things which possess it, and by which they become living beings. Their forms are His special invention and construction—and their principle of life is also His special and communicated gift. The CREATION OF VEGETABLES was the formation of living, organized beings, with spontaneous internal powers, but without those of loco-motivity; without thinking mind, and without any sensitivity discernible by us, and yet endowed with a principle of LETTER life that has many striking analogies with that which all animals possess, and which we ourselves enjoy. Plants are distinguished, for their multiplicity and variety; for that exuberance of imagination and taste which they display, and for that sense of elegance and beauty which their Maker must have had, to have so formed and diversified them. They are entirely the creation of His choice—the inventions of His rich and beautiful fancy. Their attractive shapes and qualities, and the abundant gratifications and important uses which we and our fellow animals derive from them, explicitly show that kindness as well as goodness actuated His mind when He projected and made them. They have been all individually designed and special thought must have been employed in each; both in fixing their specific differences of form and products, and in perceiving what particular combinations and variations of arrangement would effect in every one its appointed end and use. The Vegetable kingdom expands every where before us an immense portraiture of the Divine Mind, in its contriving skill, profuse imagination, conceiving genius, and exquisite taste; as well as in its interesting qualities of the most gracious benignity and the most benevolent munificence. The various flowers we behold, awaken these sentiments within us, and compel our reason to make these perceptions and this inference. They are the annual heralds and ever-returning pledges to us of His continuing beneficence, of His desire to please and to benefit us, and therefore of His parental and intellectual amiabilities. They come to us, together with the attendant seasons that nurse and evolve them, as the appointed III. 33 LETTER assurances that the World we inhabit is yet to be preserved, and the present course of things to go on." The Thunder, the Pestilence, and the Tempest, awe and humble us into dismaying recollections of His tremendous omnipotence and possible visitations, and of our total inability to resist or avert them; but the beauty and benefactions of His Vegetable Creations— the Flowers and the Fruits more especially-remind and assure us of His unforgetting care, of His condescending sympathy, of His paternal attentions, and of the same affectionate benignity still actuating His mind, which must have influenced it to design and execute such lovely and beneficent productions, that display the minutest thought, most elaborate compositions, and so much personal kindness."4 33 The recorded promise is, that' WHILE the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.' Gen. ch. viii. ver. 22. . . . . This declaration has been since steadily fulfilled for nearly fortytwo centuries. 34 Since I wrote these Letters, I have seen Mons. de Luc's Letters to Blumenbach, on the Physical History of the Earth, with Introductory Remarks by the editor, the Rev. H. de la Fite. Both parts contain very important illustrations and confirmations of the Mosaic Cosmogony; but I will only notice here, M. de Luc's conclusion as to the agency of Light commencing with the beginning of Creation. Nothing of all that we see on the globe could begin to be operated, without the union of a certain quantity of LIGHT to all the other elements of which it was composed: elements which, without it, would have exercised no chemical action on each other. Accordingly, all the known geological phenomena date their origin from the time of this union.' De Luc's Lett. p. 79, Lond. 1831. This is a principle deserving the most scientific consideration and investigation. It will probably become more obvious as our chemical knowlege enlarges. He also adds the important truth, which presents such a verification of the Mosaic account: The light first introduced iuto the mass of the earth, did not proceed from any luminous body like the Sun.' p. 86. This grand physical truth could not have originated 4,000 years ago from any human mind. It is in opposition to all ordinary sensation. LETTER IV. OUTLINES OF SOME OF THE CHIEF PRINCIPLES AND THE VEGETABLE CREATION. IV. THE Command for the rise of the VEGETABLE King- LETTER dom presents them to us in the three natural divisions of the GRASSES, the HERBS, and the TREES : and it extended to ordain their appearing with their reproductive powers for the formation of their seeds and fruits, in order to provide for their perpetuation on Earth in an unfailing succession, without any new creation.' The Deity chose that His own agency, and the secondary forces it would employ, should take the form of that organical productivity which is still as great a mystery as it has ever been-which no natural properties or powers perceptible in external nature can at all explain—and which can therefore be justly referred only to His superintending and actuating Power, that prefers to act in this unseen efficacy, rather than in the perpetual display of manifest new creations. The invisible miracle is left to be inferred by the human sagacity, from the wonderful phenomena that are continually occurring to our eyesight, which no human or known natural agency can account for. It is thus that He makes His eternal Power and Godhead the deduction of our reason And ELOHIM said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.' Gen. ch. i. ver. 11. IV. LETTER and the sentiment of our intellectual sensibility, as well as a communicated truth from His personal revelation. The appeal has been felt by all nations in all ages, altho few have acted properly or consistently with the sublime impression. Let us review some of the main features that were selected and adopted to mark and constitute the system for that peculiar order of living things, which the Vegetable tribes display. All Vegetables, in every region, and of all sorts, from the most minute to the most towering; and they are of every degree and variety of size, from that pettiness which escapes our natural sight, to that magnitude which we feel to be gigantic and would deem sublime, but that greater things are about us; have these properties in common with all animals and with the human race-organization: an interior power of progressive growth; a principle of life, with many phenomena that resemble irritability, excitability and susceptibility; and a self-reproductive and multiplying faculty. In all these qualities, they are distinguished from inorganic and earthy matter, and from all fluids and gases; and by these are raised high in the scale of being above them. In these they resemble all animated nature, and our prouder selves. We may dislike such a relationship; but to this extent our bodily frame and functions establish a natural kinship between us. They are very humble cousins, but we cannot destroy the organical and living affinity, nor escape the closing assimilation. We decline and die, as they do; and they sicken, fade, die and decay, like every human being. There is also another analogy. Their substance nourishes us, and ours not unfrequently becomes a part of theirs. They can feed on |